State Duma profile committee gave a negative response to the proposed 'baby-box' initiative

The bill stipulates that a mother or any other person who brought a child to an authorized baby-box are immune from criminal prosecution

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MOSCOW, January 24 (Itar-Tass) — The State Duma committee in charge of the affairs of family, women and children has recommended to the Duma on Thursday to turn down a bill submitted in September 2011 which authorizes a child's mother or any other person to leave a child on terms of anonymity in authorized places until the child is six months old.

The authors of the bill are a deputy from the A Just Russia faction Yelena Mizulina, who chairs the Duma profile commitee, and her former colleague Natalia Karpovich from the United Russia faction, who was deputy head of the profile committee in the previous Duma.

The Duma committee pointed out in its conclusion that the bill was drafted, taking into account the experience of Germany, Italy, Hungary, South Africa, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Austria, Latvia, Slovakia, Japan, where the "baby-boxes" were authorized more than ten years ago. In Russia, similar baby-boxes were practiced in the Krasnodar, Perm, Leningrad, Vladimir and Kursk regions.

The bill stipulates that a mother or any other person who brought a child to an authorized baby-box are immune from criminal prosecution.

But, despite the advantages of the bill the Duma profile committee, which came out in support of special measures to ensure the rights of a child to life and health protection, gave a negative response to the proposed initiative. Problems connected with relieving a person of criminal responsibility are regulated by the Criminal Code, and therefore, corresponding amendments to the Criminal Code are necessary, the Duma committee ruled.